The study of "zonation", the distribution of plants and animals into distinct spatial areas, is a great way to introduce students to basic ecological concepts. Students can conduct methodical, quantifying surveys of zones in areas as diverse as mudflats, beaches, forests, wetlands, and fields. Students collect data from these areas with field…

A professional school and university collaboration enables elementary students and their teachers to explore hydrology concepts and realize the beneficial functions of wetlands. Hands-on experiences involve young students in determining water quality at field sites after laying the groundwork with activities related to the hydrologic cycle,…

A science content course in food chemistry was offered as a 4-day summer workshop from 1999 to 2001 to 4th grade school teachers in the Seattle School District. The objectives of the workshop were to increase the teachers' knowledge of food science, to perform simple experiments that could be used in the 4th grade classroom, and to help the…

In this study, instructional activities in science classrooms are examined in order to collect evidence to account for the strengths and weaknesses of Hong Kong students in scientific literacy as reported in the PISA 2000 project. The study consists of a questionnaire survey on the perceptions of classroom climate of science lessons of 17,616…

We are developing a new activity-based unit on global warming and the environment as part of the "Explorations in Physics Curriculum." We describe the current status of this unit, which focuses on helping students understand the greenhouse effect and its relationship to global warming. We outline several problems encountered in testing the unit…

The Invention Factory is a nontraditional youth-based, after-school program in Honolulu that teaches information technology and mechanics to teenagers through interactive, hands-on projects that improve human computer interaction for individuals with disabilities. One objective of the program is to stimulate interest in science and engineering…

A science teacher and her mentor reflect on their participation in the Learning Research Cycle, a professional learning model that bridges research and practice in both university and public school contexts. Teachers do scientific research in scientists' laboratories, then bridge their scientific experiences with the design of new classroom…

The research described in this paper investigates the use of portfolio assessment techniques in middle school science classrooms. It explores how alternative assessment frameworks, such as portfolios, can be used by the classroom teacher and the students as an indicator of students' conceptual understanding and to facilitate changes in science…

This book contains descriptions of the 122 Summer Science Camps (SSC) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1992 to 1996. This program is employed as an early intervention strategy that reaches out to a large number of disadvantaged children who are underrepresented in scientific and technical careers. The main goal of the SSC is to…

This manual specifically addresses teaching middle level students and offers teachers a variety of activities that were selected and edited to reflect middle level philosophy. It is divided into five chapters each with a different focus that contain hands-on activities designed to provide many exciting and fun experiences for adolescents. Every…

"Nature at Your Doorstep" is an outgrowth of a successful environmental education program offered as a school field trip at a Nature Discovery Center. It was developed and used with thousands of students throughout Bellaire, Texas and the surrounding Houston metroplex. The purpose of this program is to kindle students' curiosity and…

Developmental changes in the understanding and use of the logic of experimental control were addressed with three tasks in a longitudinal study. In all three tasks, understanding of experimental control was assessed by production measures (children were asked to test potential causal relations in a multivariable situation) and by choice/evaluation…

This guide is one of a set of 10 science guides, each covering a separate grade in Manitoba, together covering kindergarten through grade 9. The guides have been designed to provide a framework for building scientific concepts and developing the learning of process skills. They replace an earlier set of guides dated 1979. Each guide is essentially…

This document consists of a collection of classroom activities as they appeared in the "Aviation and Space Education News" from 1988 to 1991. The 45 activities in the document are organized in the following sections: (1) Aeronautics; (2) Earth Science; (3) Space Science; (4) Life in Space; (5) Rockets; and (6) Models. Each activity is…

When teachers search the literature for activities they can do with their students, they are exposed to science process vocabulary that is improperly used and ambiguous in meaning. This is particularly so with the science process skills of observing, inferring, and hypothesizing. This study examines the process understanding of science teachers at…